what she wore wednesday

here are some pictures of elle louise's fashionable self from the last week:



LEFT:
onesie: custom
bow: local department store

MIDDLE:
outfit: the children's place
bow: local department store
shoes: ministar from target

RIGHT:
top: hand-me-down
jeggings: old navy
shoes: target
flower clip: an etsy purchase, but i can't remember what i shop i purchased it from.

and, for the featured outfit:


sweetest girl in her sunday best!

dress: dkny baby from tj maxx
sweater: hand-me-down
bow: shower gift
lace leggings and shoes: target

i am so glad that i put this little dress on elle sunday. because it fit perfectly and i highly doubt she will be able to ever wear it again. we bought that dress for elle right after we found out she was girl. it is one of my favorite items of clothing hanging in her closet! well, was a favorite. it will now go in the box with all the other clothes she has outgrown.

no tasty tuesday recipe...

...just a sweet, sweet picture from yesterday.


picture taken with my iphone and edited using the color process app

i was totally going to share a recipe for tasty tuesday today of the turkey loaf (meatloaf made with ground turkey) i made last night and was not overly impressed with myself, or the recipe for that matter, so i then thought about sharing my recipe for sweet potato fries but decided not too because that is just boring.

so because of my lack of cooking skills, you get a sweet sweet picture of my ellie bean with her great great grandma louise from yesterday. can i say that this just might be a picture of the two sweetest people on this planet. seriously.

the face among other things

it is a very lazy saturday (and cool outside...FINALLY!) around the high household. elle louise is napping as i type and we are gearing up for the big HOG game today vs. ALABAMA. hope we play good. but, more than that, i hope we WIN!

elle louise has the best personality. a big, huge, funny, sweet, loving personality! but with a big personality comes a strong will i think. because the girl does not like to go to sleep. it is a fight. every single time. this is just a time in her life where she is testing us, seeing what she can get away with. we are slowly, but surely, starting to set her boundaries. its a hard time because its hard to know what she "gets" at 7 1/2 months old. but, i'm starting to believe she "gets" more than what we give her credit for.

among some of the new things she has been doing lately (crawling, pulling up, throwing fits, cutting teeth, waving hi and bye and etc.) she has this hysterical new face. along with the face, she makes a snorting noise. it is the cutest.











she knows that it gains her attention, so the more you laugh the more she does it. it is great!

yesterday, we went up north to meet with our friends, jessica and ruby. we had a good day. all though it was a little on the warm side when we were pushing our girls in their strollers around their downtown. but it was fun. we took the girls to the park for story time and then we walked the trail to see the new crystal bridges museum of american art being built. one word...ah-mazing!


here are our sweeties. they are the greatest and love each other. i'm so thankful for jessica and ruby. i have a feeling we are going to be lifelong friends. these pictures were taken with my iphone and then edited with the retro-camera app. fun stuff.


picture that i took of the construction at crystal bridges museum.


photo courtesy of google images
picture of what crystal bridges museum will look like once finished. gorgeous and huge!


picture taken with the iphone
and, elle louise cheering on the hogs earlier (before she went down for her nap)! woooooooooo pig sooie! razorbacks! go hogs!

happy saturday!

what SHE wore wednesday

after much consideration (and looking at the pictures i did actually take of myself), i have decided that i am NOT going to do the "what I wore wednesday" posts, but rather "what SHE wore wednesday". more fun. i have nothing to offer any my readers in the fashion department. if it is not a work day or church day, i am in sweatpants or work out clothes (i don't work out, i just like to look like i do). however, elle louise, always looks cute. i make very sure of that. i look homeless and she looks like a million bucks.

i tried to make a conscious effort to take daily pictures of elle this past week, but it seemed like we were always running late or elle just didn't feel like cooperating (shocking, eh?). i did manage to get some very cute pictures from last friday night.

enjoy!








sneak peak of "the face"

dress: old navy
hair clip: heather hill clothing

how cute is that dress going to be this fall and winter with a jean jacket and leggings? or her red swing jacket and her denim jeggings?

i will make more of an effort to take more pictures of elle's sweet outfits this week. i find myself taking more pictures with my iphone than with my actual camera. the newness of the iphone will wear off soon and i'll be back to the canon in no time.

tasty tuesday blog hop {grandma's chicken noodle soup}

not my grandma's but somebody's.

and, it did not disappoint!

happy to say that i got something very fun and special this weekend. the iPhone 4! i can hear you all screaming with excitement for me. thank you. thank you very much. one of the apps (yes, free) that i downloaded is the allrecipes dinner spinner. love. it. if you don't have it you should totally get it. i also downloaded a calorie counter app and WHOA! NELLY! i eat a lot of calories. whew!

this weeks tasty tuesday recipe is yet another allrecipes recipe. recipe and reviews can be found here.




Ingredients

2 1/2 cups wide egg noodles
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
12 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup water
3 cups diced, cooked chicken meat

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add egg noodles and oil, and boil for 8 minutes, or until tender. Drain, and rinse under cool running water.
2. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, combine broth, salt, and poultry seasoning. Bring to a boil. Stir in celery and onion. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 15 minutes.
3. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and water together until cornstarch is completely dissolved. Gradually add to soup, stirring constantly. Stir in noodles and chicken, and heat through.

changes that i made:

i used a rotisserie chicken, low sodium broth, and added peas and carrots (just about 1 - 1 1/2 cups of frozen). also, i didn't cook the noodles separately (and omitted the oil altogether). i just added the un-cooked noodles at the end with the chicken. this recipe makes a TON of soup. seriously, i think it makes WAY MORE than 12 servings. but, very very easy and very very yummy! it will be a staple in the high household for the cold, winter months. that is, if they ever get here.


weekend recap (because i know you are dying to know what the high's did this weekend):

we laid pretty low. ate dinner with my parents/family friday AND saturday night. my mom really misses elle louise throughout the week and loves to spend as much time with her as possible on the weekends. and, we watched the razorback game on saturday with some friends. to be completely honest, i don't even remember who we played but i know we won. go hogs go! woo pig sooie!

i just have to say that elle louise is getting funnier by the moment. she has really started doing some great things. i have some pictures to share of her new squishy face. she is ALMOST crawling. getting so so close. waves bye bye and hi (and, even raises the roof). snorts like a pig. blows raspberries (that sound like toots) on my skin. squeals at the top of her lungs for attention. coughs for attention. seriously, she is a hoot. i don't ever want to forget these days! hopefully, with this blog i won't!




google images

and, i just have to throw this in there. my grandparents are in albuquerque, new mexico (or will be) for the 2010 albuquerque balloon fiesta this year.

mimi and poppy, i know you will read this. well, mimi, i know you will read this. i hope you are having a good time. elle louise has lots of new tricks for you when you get home. also, i was reading the october 2010 country living magazine this evening and there was an article on the balloon fiesta. you are sure to have a good time. take lots of awesome pictures like this one. we love you! see you soon!

hope everyone has a good week. we have lots going on so i'm not sure how much i will be able to blog, but i hope to share some fun pictures (what else?) of elle louise that i took this weekend.

ak's 4th ice-cream birthday bash {a few months late}

while sifting through pictures yesterday i came across ak's birthday party pictures. they are just too cute not to share.


pretty girl


sassy talk


ak and her friends eating their ice cream

can i just say 4-year old friendships are the funniest! watching little tots interacting with each other is the sweetest thing in the world!

it was a fun birthday party and of course ak was not phased with all the attention being directed her way. she is a ham! i love my little ak so much and cannot believe that next year she will be a big kindergartner!

here are some recent pictures of elle louise and her cousins a couple weekends ago.


ak lost the top to her razorback cheer outfit, so she improvised with a swimsuit top


give me a heart attack, why don't ya!


sitting pretty

happy thursday. very much looking forward to this weekend!

trying to get organized here

why is it that in the middle of the week everything just all seems to start feeling a bit overwhelming?

i never want my blog to be something people read and think she has the most perfect life. i do have an extremely blessed life, yes. but, perfect, no. however, this is something that i have really struggled with. how transparent do i want to be on my blog? i want to be transparent and i want to be able to relate with readers, but i never ever ever want to air my dirty laundry on my blog. or, for my blog to become some sort of outlet for my insecurities or a place where i vent my anger. things change in life daily. relationships change. people change.

with that being said, i sit here wednesday morning with my cup of coffee uploading pictures from june and july. elle louise is watching clifford in the swing and she hasn't made a peep in 45 minutes. why mess up a good thing? but, as i am uploading and organizing pictures it just really makes me anxious. i feel like i cannot just not get things together. the house doesn't clean itself. the laundry doesn't do itself. dinner doesn't make itself. and you get the point. but, i have ZERO motivation. i'm so behind on everything. but, i know i'll clean the house top to bottom and in days time it will be back to where it was today. but, if i don't clean it will be unlivable. okay, so unlivable my be a little over-dramatic because its not THAT dirty but just messy and dirty enough to be overwhelming.

we have bills piling up on the desk. we owe so much money to so many different people it just sucks. quite frankly. money to the hospital. money to credit cards (if you don't have credit cards don't EVER get them. they are from the DEVIL.). money to doctors office for elle's uti (and we haven't even seen these bills yet). money to here. money to there. we ARE on a strict/tight budget, so i know in time everything will be paid off, but i'm just ready to be there. and be DEBT FREE. our goal is to be completely debt free (expcept for a mortgage) by elle's 5th birthday, so that we can take her to disney world!

on top of all that relationships and friendships are fading and some are blossoming. different stages in life warrant changes in relationships, but sometimes i wish everything would just stay the same. i miss so many of my friends who have just faded since elle louise has been born, but i feel so lucky to have made some new friends since her birth. girls who are in the same season of life (such a corny use of words...but oh, so true) as me. not to mention how your relationship changes with your husband. don't get me wrong, elle louise has brought aaron and i so much closer in just a parental-kind-of-loving way (if that makes any sense). and, i look at my husband with just respect and admiration after elle's birth. he works so hard so that i can stay home a couple days a week, and he is such a wonderful hands-on father (so so thankful for that). we are there for each other and we have, and always will have, the commonality of loving someone other than each other more than life itself. and not even being able to explain that love. but, its hard to keep the spark alive, if you will. i know we will get back there. but, for now things are just different. i'm a part-time working mom. aaron is a full-time working dad. his job can be high-stress. and my days are mostly exhausting and will continue to be. doesn't leave a whole ton of time for bonding with each other. date-nights without the baby are going to have to start soon. that's a must!

with all that being said, i would not change my crazy life for anything. i feel better getting this out there. i read so many blogs and just think she has got it so together. her life is so perfect. she is gorgeous with zero flaws. her children are amazing. she is so creative. she is the best wife. and i could go on and on. i could even go as far as linking to the blogs that i so admire, but i won't go there. really, if i'm going to do this whole blog thing, then i really want people to know that i'm not perfect. my family isn't perfect. our finances aren't perfect...we are poor! my marriage isn't perfect. but, all in all, i am blessed in every aspect of my life.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27)

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

i love how God's word can speak to you in different ways at different stages in your life. these verses are from a little scripture journal i kept in high school and early college.

well, better tend to the sweetness that is elle louise. i can smell that poopy diaper from here.

and i leave you with some sweet pictures of elle louise and cousin parker from a couple weeks ago.









and, i'm just gonna press PUBLISH POST!

tasty tuesday

found a great blog last week, a beautiful mess, and alicia (the blog author) does a fun blog-hop every tuesday (hence the post title, tasty tuesday) so i decided to hop along. i've needed some new content on my blog to give it a little dimension and i think this might just do the trick. i know, i know elle louise is the most precious thing in the whole world and that pictures of her every day are just great, but i'm sure my devoted readers are ready for something new!

i might also try something on wednesdays if i can convince myself that it is not vain and stupid. i will call it "what we wore wednesday" and share outfits that elle and i sport throughout the week. i always look homeless, but elle ALWAYS looks like a million bucks. and, her church outfits are always to-die-for! maybe i'll just call is "what she wore wednesday" or "what elle louise wore wednesday" and just do elle's outfit.

oh yeah, and i copied the idea of "what we wore wednesday" from lindsey at the pleated poppy. i'm such a copycat. p.s. i don't think lindsey is vain or stupid.

so, for my tasty tuesday blog hop recipe, i made banana chocolate chip cookies last night. we had many bananas that were super duper ripe (8 to be exact) and just going to go to waste and since i paid a small fortune for them (they were organic) i decided to turn them into a little treat. although, i might call these muffin tops instead of cookies, because they kind of have the consistency of muffins, they were good nonetheless.


picture courtesy of google images

here is the recipe:

ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup white sugar
2/3 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed bananas
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

directions:
preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). grease cookie sheets.
sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together, and set aside.
cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. beat in the eggs and vanilla. mix in the mashed bananas. add the flour mixture, and stir until just combined. stir in the chocolate chips. drop by spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets.
bake in preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes.

i found the recipe here. i read several of the readers comments and used some of the recommendations...not as much baking powder, more bananas, and milk chocolate morsels instead of semi-sweet. if i would have had banana extract i would have used that in place of the vanilla to make them more "banana-y".

hope you enjoyed this post.

happy baking!

saturday morning

oh my gosh, y'all. is she really mine to keep forever?

a saturday free of "to-do's". a sleeping baby in the swing. a sleeping husband in the bed. laundry in the washer and the dryer. folded laundry on the couch. fresh-brewed coffee waiting for me to refill my mug. autumn candle burning. a lived-in house that is going to stay lived-in. a happy mommy perusing google reader, catching up with friends.

it's going to be a good day!

rainy thursday

photos taken in the sunflower field where we took elle louise's 7 month pictures

these pictures cheer me up on this rainy, dreary thursday. not complaining because we were in desperate need of a good rain. but, nevertheless, it is making for a very sleepy and unproductive day!

elle's new friend ruby

on friday night, the high's visited the kiehn's. what a fun night. we walked from their house to their town's square, ate dinner, and went back to their house for elle louise and ruby to play and for yummy dessert!

we had a great time with our new friends!


you can tell elle was excited about her new friend!


ruby wasn't sure what to make of her new friend. crazy little elle louise!


they became fast friends!


pretty little chubbers!


elle wanting to hold ruby's hand!


precious!


love!

thank you kiehn's for a fun evening! we can't wait to hang out again soon!